A TRUCK driver shot dead three Israeli guards at a border crossing between the occupied West Bank and Jordan Sunday before being “eliminated”, Israel’s military said, as it pounded Gaza with new strikes.
Jordan’s interior ministry identified the shooter as Jordanian national Maher Diab Hussein al-Jazi, citing “preliminary investigations”.
The rare attack at the Allenby Bridge crossing comes amid soaring violence in the West Bank with major Israeli raids and attacks by Palestinians, and against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas Gaza war, now in its 12th month.
The military said “a terrorist” reached the crossing area, also known as the King Hussein Bridge, in a truck “from Jordan”.
The driver “exited the truck and opened fire at Israeli security forces operating at the bridge”, a military statement said.
The military told AFP that three Israelis working as “security guards” were killed in the shooting, adding they were not in the army or police.
The attacker was shot dead, the military said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the assailant as a “despicable terrorist” inspired by “a murderous ideology” which he said was fuelled by Iran.
Hamas praised the attack but did not claim responsibility for it, adding it “affirms the Arab peoples’ rejection of the (Israeli) occupation, its crimes, and its ambitions in Palestine and Jordan”.
The crossing, in the Jordan Valley, is the only international gateway for Palestinians from the West Bank that does not require entering Israel, which has occupied the territory since 1967.
